Hyundai Motor Group (HMG), together with LG Energy Solution, has begun construction of its planned electric vehicle (EV) battery cell plant in Indonesia. The groundbreaking ceremony for the site, which is located in Karawang New Industry City, near Jakarta, was held last week.
This follows on the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in July between both companies and the Indonesian government to establish a joint venture (JV) to manufacture battery cells for BEVs in the republic. The two Korean companies said they would each own a 50% stake in the JV, and would invest a total of USD 1.1 billion (RM4.6 billion) into the operation.
Participants at the groundbreaking event included Indonesian president Joko Widodo and the country’s investment minister, Bahlil Lahadalia, as well as Hong Woo-pyeong, the CEO of Battery Cell joint venture and Youngtack Lee, head of Asia-Pacific headquarters at Hyundai Motor Company. Hyundai chairman Euisun Chung and Jong-hyun Kim, president and CEO of LG Energy Solutions attended the ceremony virtually from Korea.
The new battery cell factory will be built on a 330,000-square-meter parcel of land. Plant construction is expected to be completed by the first half of 2023, and mass production of battery cells in the new facility is slated to commence in the first half of 2024.
When fully operational, the facility is expected to produce a total of 10 GWh worth of NCMA (nickel, cobalt, manganese, aluminium) lithium-ion battery cells annually, which will meet the requirements of more than 150,000 BEVs. The facility will be able to increase its production capacity up to 30 GWh to meet the growth of future BEV needs.
Battery cells produced in Karawang will be used in models utlising HMG’s Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) architecture, including the Hyundai Ioniq 5 as well as the Kia EV6. Meanwhile, the Indonesian government has agreed to offer various incentives and rewards to support the operation of the plant.
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